Monitoring systems that collect status information of a network from a plurality of network apparatuses forming the network and that analyze the collected information are known. In the monitoring systems, monitoring apparatuses called network probes are installed for individual network apparatuses so as to obtain network information from the individual network apparatuses. For example, the monitoring apparatuses obtain, from the network apparatuses, status information regarding the transfer time and the packet loss status of a communication channel. The status information obtained by the monitoring apparatuses is collected by server apparatuses that function as collecting apparatuses.
The following technique is known. A server list management unit of a management server in a load distributed system selects servers to be accessed by a client terminal management server with reference to operation statuses and load statuses of servers, generates a list of the selected servers, and sends the generated server list to the client terminal management server.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-256303 discloses a related technique.
In the work for installing a monitoring apparatus, which has been hitherto performed, a location where the monitoring apparatus is to be installed and address information of the monitoring apparatus are designed beforehand. At the time of installation of the monitoring apparatus, address information of a collecting apparatus that has been determined as a sending destination of status information is set in the newly installed monitoring apparatus and the address information of the newly installed monitoring apparatus is also set in the collecting apparatus. Subsequently, a connection between the monitoring apparatus installed at the location and the collecting apparatus located at the center is checked. Accordingly, man-hours are spent on the pre-design process, the address-information setting process, and the connection check process.